Make Poverty History were organizations in a number of countries, which focused on issues relating to 8thMillennium Development Goal such as aid, trade and justice. They generally formed acoalition of aid and development agencies which worked together to raise awareness of globalpoverty and achieve policy change by governments. The movement has existed in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, South Africa, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. The various national campaigns were part of the internationalGlobal Call to Action Against Poverty campaign.
TheMake Poverty History campaign in Great Britain and Ireland is a coalition of charities, religious groups, trade unions, campaigning groups and celebrities who mobilise around Britain's prominence in world politics, as of 2005, to increase awareness and pressure governments into taking actions towards relievingabsolute poverty. The symbol of the campaign is a white "awareness bracelet" made of cotton or silicone. Usually, on the band the words would be written in black, with the "Poverty" word a lighter shade. A "virtual" white band[2] was also available to be displayed on websites.
Television advertisements ran for many months, urging people to speak to their representatives about stopping poverty. However, theOffice of Communications (Ofcom) banned the ads, deciding that the ads were "wholly or mainly political" in nature, since they aimed to "achieve important changes".[3]
The three demands of the campaign were:[4]
None of these aims were new (there were many attempts over the preceding decades to promote them), but the scale of the 2005 campaign dwarfed previous efforts.
On January 31, 2006, the majority of the members of the campaign passed a resolution to disband the organisation, arguing that the British coalition had only agreed to come together formally for a limited lifespan, to correspond with Britain holding the presidency of the EU andG8. Approximately forty groups argued against the dissolution.
On January 23, 2013, theEnough Food For Everyone IF campaign was launched, by a group of over 100 aid organisations and religious groups. Sometimes calledMake Poverty History 2, or simply theIF campaign, the new undertaking is the biggest of its kind since the originalmake poverty history campaign of 2005.[5] It coincides with Britain once again assuming presidency of the G8. The central theme of the campaign concerns endinghunger, with four strands aimed at tackling the root causes:
The launch of the campaign was welcomed by Britain's prime minister David Cameron, and supported by international figures such asBill Gates and ArchbishopDesmond Tutu.[6][7][8][9]On June 8, the IF campaign mobilized about 45,000 people to demonstrate inHyde Park, while a hunger summit underway elsewhere in London saw £2.7 billion in new commitments made to tackle hunger.[10] Speaking on the eve of the June 2013G8 summit atLough Erne, theArchbishop of York delivered a message on behalf of theIF campaign, calling on world leaders to take substantive action to relieve hunger, saying it is a scandal that malnutrition is allowed to lead to the death of a child every ten seconds.[11]
The IF campaign coalition commissioned an external evaluation of the campaign. The evaluation report assesses progress against objectives and captures learnings for future work.[12]
Make Poverty History set out a timescale revolving around the31st G8 summit inGleneagles, Scotland on July 6, 2005.
The campaign was given a high-profile launch on British television on New Year's Day 2005 in a special edition ofThe Vicar of Dibley, written byRichard Curtis, who pledged support for the campaign during 2005. The same issues were highlighted in Curtis' television dramaThe Girl in the Café, in an episode broadcast on June 25 on theBBC One channel in the UK on theHBO channel in the U.S. and on ABC TV in Australia.
The British campaign had over 540 member organisations including many faith groups, trade unions and charities. It was coordinated byBritish Overseas NGOs for Development (Bond).
Whilst the anti-war groupCND was a member, theStop the War Coalition (StWC) asked to join but was refused. Make Poverty History's governing body, the coordination team, cited the substantial political party affiliations of the governing body of StWC as the primary reason. They also gave the grounds that the issues of economic justice are separate from those ofIraq War, and STWC participation in Edinburgh on July 2 would confuse the message. In a highly critical article inRed Pepper magazine, Stuart Hodkinson asserted that this was ironic sinceOxfam a member of the coordination team "is currently leading a worldwide campaign for an international arms treaty on the basis that uncontrolled arms fuels poverty and suffering."[13]
The movement was characterised by rifts between Oxfam and the other participating organisations, partly over tactics and partly due to concerns that Oxfam was too close toTony Blair and New Labour.[14]
The Canadian Make Poverty History campaign was launched in February 2005 by a coalition coordinated byGerry Barr, President and CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation. The campaign is supported by a coalition of charities, trade unions, faith groups, students, academics, literary, artistic and sports leaders such as actorMary Walsh, musicianTom Cochrane, OlympianAnna van der Kamp, actorsRoy Dupuis andPascale Montpetit, and United Nations special envoyStephen Lewis.
Make Poverty History has four main objectives in Canada:
The French-language version of the Make Poverty History is "Abolissons La Pauvreté". While this literally translates to "let's abolish poverty", neither the English- nor French-language versions of the Canadian campaign should be confused with End Poverty Now. The former represents the Canadian Make Poverty History campaign; the latter is a stand-alone organization that, while remaining affiliated with the campaign, was created independently by a small grouping of MPH Canada's member base.
In April 2005, a commercial began airing in the United States with several celebrities in black and white stating the pledge of the AmericanONE Campaign, their version of Make Poverty History. The commercial featured 33 celebrities and personalities; names as diverse as religious leadersPat Robertson andFrank Griswold; singers includingBono,P. Diddy,Mos Def andJewel; and various actors includingBrad Pitt,Susan Sarandon,Al Pacino andAntonio Banderas. At the end,Tom Hanks states, "We're not asking for your money. We're asking for your voice."[citation needed]
The general goals of the ONE campaign in the United States are to end extreme poverty, hunger and AIDS.
The founding sponsors of ONE areBread for the World,CARE,DATA,International Medical Corps,International Rescue Committee,Mercy Corps,Oxfam America,Plan USA,Save the Children US,World Concern, andWorld Vision. They have strong ties with theNBA,MTV'sRock the Vote, and theUnited Nations Millennium Campaign.
The Norwegian campaign was started byNorwegian Church Aid on June 9.Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway andKjell Magne Bondevik are some of the celebrities in Norway that wear a white Make Poverty History band.
The three demands of the Norwegian campaign are:
The shops in Norway that sell Make Poverty history bands are Cubus and Dressman, two Norwegian clothing shops.
The Australian campaign is coordinated by theAustralian Council for International Development (ACFID) and is a coalition of more than 60 member organisations, drawn mainly from the Non Government Aid and development sector, includingWorld Vision,Oxfam,Caritas,The Oaktree Foundation andEngineers Without Borders.
In November 2006,Melbourne hosted theMake Poverty History Concert to align with theG20 Summit. Since then, the Make Poverty History campaign has continued to create awareness for the need for increased overseas aid and greater measures of effectiveness, through the yearly Stand Up Against Poverty campaign, as well as major campaigns for the federal elections in 2007 and 2010, including Make Poverty History Roadtrips.
They also continue to incite social mobilisation among people in Australia, often being present at social and music events such asFalls Festival andBig Day Out, as well as having a great range of opportunities to organise their own campaigning events.
Some critics, such asTheodore Dalrymple, allege that debt relief and aid are used to fund lavish lifestyles for the ruling class[15] (although efforts are made to exclude these countries from the G8 debt relief).
Other critics were Mariéme Jamme of Africa gathering and Dambisa Moyo.[16] Moyo argues that a campaign to reduce poverty in Africa should be undertaken by Africans, and the Make Poverty History was not, thereby undermining the leadership of African rulers.
Others were critical of the ending of the Make Poverty History coalition; the academicAlex Callinicos wrote in theSocialist Worker newspaper that "disbanding of MPH has a lot to do with the interests of the big NGOs that dominated it" and that "scrapping MPH was an utterly shameful decision. It can only promote the belief that those who currently dominate the world are benevolent figures who will, with a few pushes from below, continue to take 'small steady steps forwards'".[17]
Some criticism also emerged from the campaign's wristbands, specifically from the fact that some of these were proven to have been produced by forced labourers in Chinese sweatshops.[18]
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